Re: Stupor Bowl Ring Not withstanding Joe Flacco STILL aint that great

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fiddler

There's another thread ("Oh my...") where the writer questions the small sample sizes we use to formulate our opinions. This 7 game stretch you're mentioning is just that. I'd have to imagine Flacco has posted similar numbers at some other time in his career. His play off performance last year was just as impressive as what he had done this year.

Just saying I don't know that removing Cam Cameron equals a better Flacco. When they played us over the last two or three years, they seemed to go deep quite a bit. They've always had a vertical offense, they just had issues providing the protection needed to do so.

Then there's the "firing the OC will light a fire under their butts" thing. Just the fact that Cameron was fired mid season could have been the mental motivation they needed & it's affects could wear off by September. Not saying that's the case, just saying that may be the primary reason for this "short-term" performance.

I'm all about Flacco, I think his stock has gone up as a result of his most recent play-off performance. I think it's confirmation of what we saw last year. So it's not that I don't think much of Flacco, just what we're attributing his success to. He's always been streaky. A couple of great games followed by a couple of duds.

He's definitely one of the better QBs in the league, but to be elite (not that you're saying he's elite) he's got to minimize those dud games.

Give me a break. They haven't always been vertical. They have TRIED to be vertical but Cameron was giving the ball to Rice around 44% of the plays...which equals no play action and no one open deep. When Caldwell took over, Rice started getting it around 51% of the time and all of a sudden the deep ball and play action were open. Coincidence?

I don't care when his streak was. They just beat Indy, went on the road and beat Denver, went on the road and beat NE and then played in the SB and beat SF. Arguably the 3 top teams in the league in a row. In that span he doesn't throw an interception. Sorry, you can speculate all you want, the numbers play out that he played his tail off and stepped it up another level. Saying anything else is untruthful.

As for the word elite...I don't use it and not sure this makes him elite. I just know what he did was awesome. But there are elite QBs that all have dud games. Brady, Rodgers, etc all have bad games. So saying he has to be a stud for 16 games and playoffs makes no sense.